Cool Hunting

Geoffrey Todd Smith: Two New Shows
Geoffrey Todd Smith likes to "dazzle himself," but his upcoming show at Chicago's Western Exhibitions Gallery is sure to dazzle audiences, with his relentless exploration of beauty in daily life, played out in his mesmerizing painting and drawing hybrids. For this show, Smith uses titles to comment on social networking, each piece reflecting a self-involved, momentary declaration of his frame of mind while making...

Dietrich Wegner at Pulse
by Kelsey KeithLast week we were taken aback at NYC's Pulse Art Fair by artist Dietrich Wegner's "Playhouse," an installation shaped like a mushroom cloud and built like a tree fort covered in swaths of cotton. A study in contradiction, "Playhouse" mingled with tattooed babies and dotted light paintings in Chicago gallerist Carrie Secrist Gallery's booth. Wegner creates "images that are safe and unsettling, abject...

Painter Ann Toebbe
Ann Toebbe's paintings of domestic scenes and assorted interiors are quite inspirational, giving the feeling of living in a geometric, melancholy collage. The Chicago-based artist's work shares some of the color, shapes and flatness of Christoph Ruckhäberle, but she leaves out the people and weirdness. In each piece, intricate patterns and simple forms clutter the plane, which make up a uniquely one-dimensional composition....

Fray Magazine
Fiction can be fun, but nothing's better than hearing a personal tale that leaves you wishing for more and provides the relieving feeling that you're not the only one who has tried to smuggle a swordfish through customs.That's why we're happy the San Francisco-based web community Fray has decided to take their stories, usually told online and on the road, and put them in print...